Harry Potter and the Grey Titan

Chapter 4: The Thinking Cap

Harry woke up vibrating with excitement on the morning of September the first. The past month after Hagrid had his talk with the Dursleys had been the best month he had ever had with them, it was also one of the loneliest as far as human interaction goes. All three of the Dursleys ignored him, it was the middle of the summer so he didn't have school to go to, and the people who used him for their school work didn't have any school work to do. On the other hand, Harry also had Hedwig to care for and talk to, the beautiful snowy owl he got from Hagrid on his birthday.

She quickly became one of his favorite parts of his daily routine, waking up and doing his meditation to find his magic and follow the 'flow' through his body, and somehow Hedwig always flew in from her nightly hunting as Harry finished, then he would talk to her about anything and everything. What his plans were for the day, about his life so far and where he wanted it to go, how excited and nervous he was about going to Hogwarts. Harry always spent at least 20 minutes talking to her while he stroked her feathers, changing her water and offering her an owl treat or two. Harry would then go eat his breakfast while Hedwig went to sleep, and then he would run to his private area in the woods to practice his control on magic. Having access to actual magic books gave him so many new ideas to practice along with his already mastered spells.

One of the new ideas he got from coming into contact with the magical world was how to make things grow and shrink on command. He had not made much progress on this feat, he could tell he made some change, but only because he was paying such close attention to the objects. The change could be missed by a casual glance or by someone who was unfamiliar with what size the object should be. He did see a little more progress trying the knockback jinx. Harry was not completely convinced the progress he was seeing was actually the knockback jinx or a more concentrated and controlled version of his telekinesis magic.

Around lunch time, Harry would go back to Privet Drive, the Dursleys would promptly drop whatever they were doing and leave the room he was in, fix himself some lunch before taking his plate back to his bedroom to study and take more notes for school. Harry knew that with his vault alone he would be set to live comfortably and away from the Dursleys, but by this time he had become so accustomed to understanding his school work front to back he enjoyed the challenge of new material and there was always the chance he might be able to restart his homework business at Hogwarts.

Harry would then take a late dinner and chat with Hedwig again when she woke up before she would take off to hunt for the night, wind down with his nightly meditation where he reviewed his day and go to sleep.

Stretching the tension out of his back, Harry saw no reason not to do his morning meditation, rolled his shoulders and looked inside himself. A short time later, Harry could hear the beating wings of Hedwig as she flew through the window. After putting Hedwig in her cage for her nap, Harry began to comb over every inch of his to room to make sure he did not leave anything behind, reorganized his trunk, and shifted around the books in his satchel so he had his class books, the book his was currently reading and the next book on his list inside.

By the time Harry went down for breakfast, the Dursleys had finished theirs and made themselves scarce, Vernon going in to work, Petunia was spying on the neighborhood while hiding in her gardens, and Dudley had ran out of the house to 'visit with his friends,' or more likely, to meet up with his gang and plan his last few victims of summer. At around nine-thirty, Harry decided he couldn't wait any longer and grabbed his things and walked down to the edge of the driveway, stuck his wand out and hailed the Knight Bus.

After getting his feet back underneath him and thanking Stan for his help loading up his trunk on a trolley, Harry wore a big grin on his face as he made his way to Platforms 9 and 10. Remembering Bill's advice, Harry leaned casually on the wall, scanning to make sure the coast was clear before quickly dropping back through the wall and turning around and getting his first view of the Hogwarts Express.

And Harry actually felt his jaw drop. First from the sheer size of the platform that was being hidden and how the muggles never noticed it was here. Then from the train itself, steam was rolling off the front of the glossy red engine, to the many railcars for passengers, to the very large fireplaces on the opposite side of the platform, all of which had a brand new yet also retro feel to it. Harry wasn't convinced that the bricks on the ground came that clean from the factory.

Still turning his head in all directions, Harry made it to a rail car and loaded his trunk up and he had to stop again to marvel at the magic involved, the train was once again bigger on the inside than it should have been in the muggle world. Making his way to the middle of the train, Harry finally chose a cabin at random and placed his trunk on the luggage rack. Sitting down and pulling out a book about magic you can do without a wand from his satchel, Harry began to read.

"Hello, I was wondering if I could sit with you?" Harry was dragged out of the book he had been absorbed in and looked at the newcomer.

"Sure, come on in." Harry gave a small smile to the slightly overweight boy who looked incredibly nervous. He set his book down and helped the newcomer with his trunk before situating himself back onto his seat.

"Are you starting your first year too?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. I am really relieved. My family didn't think I'd get my letter." The boy said. "My name's Neville. Neville Longbottom, pleasure to meet you."

As Neville said this he straightened himself.

"Oh.. er. My name is Harry. Harry Potter."

Nevelle's eyes and mouth widened a bit as he reached forward to shake Harry's hand. "Really? That's lucky. I was hoping to run into you."

Harry started to scowl as Neville began to smile before quickly going on. "N-not j-just to meet you. O-our families have been close for ages. Something about our great great great grandfather's getting into a bit of a jam together."

"Really? I don't really know a lot about my family. What happened?" Harry's eyes lit up as he asked.

Emboldened by Harry's interest, Neville sat up a little straighter and began to tell the story of how Hadrian Potter and Augustus Longbottom were at Gringotts Bank during a Rebellion Lockdown, and though no one knows for sure what happened, the two walked out of the bank, a little battleworn, but together and started an alliance that would keep the Potter and Longbottoms and friendly terms for generations.

"Grandma was telling me about my dad the other day and she was telling a story about how cute she thought it was when little James would follow my dad around before he went off to Hogwarts." Neville said. "James was always trying to show off and impress"-

"Do you have room for one more?" A freckled red haired boy asked as he poked his head into the compartment. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry and Neville looked at eachother, shrugged and waved the newcomer in and helped him get settled.

"I'm Ron. Ron Weasley."

"Neville Longbottom. Pleasure to meet you."

"Harry. Harry Potter"-

"Blimey! Are you really?" Ron blurted out before lowering his voice, "do you really have the scar? Do you"-

"Ronald!"

"Weasley!"

"You will -not- be pestering -Harry Potter- today." A pair of identical twins appeared at the door and took turns speaking and berating Ron. Looking at Harry they continued, "Please -forgive our- dear -brother.- He has a -nasty habit- of speaking without -thinking.- We're sure he -didn't- mean to be -insensitive.-"

Harry's eyes had a hard time keeping up with the jumping back and forth between the twins and judging by the small grins on their faces that was part of why they enjoyed it. He also noticed Ron's ear starting to turn red and decided to try and smooth things over, after his experience in the Alley the first time getting swarmed, he was reluctant to enter the spotlight but he also couldn't toss people out of hand for being interested.

"It's alright, I get that a lot." Harry smiled, pulling his hair back to reveal his scar. "I don't remember anything from that night though."

All four boys in the compartment froze and stared at the scar on Harry's forehead. "So it's true. That's where You-Know-Who tried to…" Ron whispered before one of the twins smacked the back of his head.

"Right, I'm Fred and this George Weasley," Fred said before gesturing to his younger brother, "we just wanted to make sure little Ron here got settled in before we went a saw a friend of ours who let us know he's got a giant tarantula to show us, so we'll be off."

"Just make sure you don't need us and don't get kicked out of the compartment." George called over his shoulder. The door to the compartment slid closed before another word could be spoken to either of them.

There was a bit of an awkward silence as the train began to move but eventually the three began to talk about what they were most interested in at school, which quickly turned into Neville and Ron bringing Harry up to speed on the rules of Quidditch and the different teams that make up the different tournaments and reminiscing about the National Teams performance in the last World Cup. Ron informed the group that Gryffindor had not won the Cup since Charlie quit the team in his fifth year to study dragons. The boys then discussed dragons and how cool it would be to work with them and the boys rambled on, jumping from topic to topic every so often until there was a knock at the door.

"Excuse me, has anyone lost a toad?" A young girl asked the compartment, causing Neville to pat his pockets before eyeing the toad in the girl's outstretched hands.

"Trevor!" Neville excitedly exclaimed. "I didn't even notice you run off!"

Neville retrieved Trevor from the girl, thanking her and introducing himself, "thank you, my name is Neville Longbottom."

"Hermione Granger. And yours?" She asked, looking at Ron and Harry.

"Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter."

"Are you really? I've read loads about you." Hermione responded. "My parents aren't magical so I had a lot to catch up on and you came up quite a bit."

"I tried my best to avoid those books but it was very shocking to read about all the things I had never done." Harry replied, obviously uncomfortable. "I'm more or less starting in the same place you are."

"None of the books mentioned you being raised by muggles." Hermione gasped, all three occupants stared at the young teen in astonishment.

Harry shrugged, "Like I said, I tried to avoid reading them. I doubt there's much truth to any of it." Harry turned to look out of the window and watched the scenery as it passed by letting silence settle in the compartment again.

"What is it like growing up around magic?" Hermione asked.

Slowly, the compartment started to talk again and between explaining what the differences between a muggle and a magical home were, and the first instances of accidental magic, enough time had passed for the train to slow down prompting the teens to change into their school robes. A voice rang out reminding all the passengers to leave their luggage on the train and to make their way to the platform to finish the journey to school.

Harry, not one to be entirely trusting, made a point to grab his satchel before disembarking, turning to the familiar voice calling out to the students, "Firs' Years o'er here!"

Looking back to make sure his companions were following, the group made their way over to the towering figure of Hagrid. Waving and greeting the giant, Harry led his group to the other first years waiting behind him. After about five minutes and the platform had just about emptied, Hagrid turned around and led the children down a path a short ways to the shore of a lake.

"No more'n four tah a boat! E'ryone find a boat!" Hagrid called out as he climbed into a noticeably larger boat by himself. Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Ron all climbed into a boat together and before long, an entire armada of small boats launched into the lake, hugging a row of trees. As the first few boats started to glide past them, each boat took their turns gasping and staring ahead in wonder.

As Harry's boat cleared the trees and started its journey across the open water, the passengers were greeted with a beautiful sight. Hogwarts, in all its glory, from the layout and sheer size of the castle, to the flickering lights in the windows, the late afternoon sun reflecting off of the greenhouses and the sunset reflecting off of the surface of the water, it truly was a magnificent sight. Adding in the faint smell of the feast and the far off sounds of laughter from the early students riding the carriages, and the subtle feelings of warm greetings and safety (which Harry later learns is from the ward lines), Harry could not remember ever being so full of positive feelings in his life as was evident by his misty eyes and big goofy smile on his face.

The fleet of firsties made landfall and followed Hagrid up some stairs and met a very stern looking woman. Harry immediately knew she was not one to be trifled with judging by the severe gaze she was giving the entire group. She introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Head of House for Gryffindor before leading them into a small room and giving them an overview of the Houses of Hogwarts.

"Now, I shall return shortly when I have made certain the Hall is ready to receive you." She spoke lingering over a few individuals slightly longer. "I would suggest you smarten yourselves up before you are sorted."

Almost immediately as Professor McGonagall left, many low whispers consumed the small room. Harry also noticed the rude boy from Madam Malkins pushed his way through the students separating himself from the blonde boy.

"Are you really Harry Potter?" The blonde boy asked incredulously. He seemed to take a fortifying breath before introducing himself. "The name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. My father would like me to introduce you to proper Wizarding folk and steer you away from… the wrong sort." Draco grimaced as he observed the three closest to Harry and eventually extended his hand.

Harry narrowed his eyes a bit as the rude boy introduced himself and felt himself get offended on behalf of his companions. "I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself thanks." Harry said, distastefully looking at Draco's extended hand.

"Really? You've done a bang up job already." Draco stuck his nose in the air. "Friends with a Squib," Draco gave Neville a hard look, "a dirt poor blood traitor," another glare at Ron, "and a mudb"-

"The Sorting Ceremony shall begin. Form up into lines and follow me." Professor McGonagall's voice carried into the room. Draco huffed, nodded to the two large boys at his side and fell into line. Harry, still scowling, hung out towards the back. Ron and Neville stayed close to him but Hermione was too excited and almost ran to the front of the line.

Harry entered the Great Hall before he lost his scowl. It was really hard to see all of the students and be anything other than nervous. So he raised his gaze to the ceiling and felt his jaw drop once more. It was like gazing into the open sky! You couldn't even see the ceiling, and if he hadn't heard Hermiones whispered fact and remembered reading his own copy of Hogwarts, a History, he wouldn't have believed it.

Harry was once more pulled back to his senses by Professor McGonagall. She set a very faded and tattered hat on a stool and the entire hall became quiet. Then he was shocked again when the hat started to sing! After the polite applause died down, McGonagall called the first student up to the stool and before too long, the young girl was sorted into Hufflepuff. For the most part it was rather quick moving, taking about 30 seconds to sort each child. There were a few exceptions taking noticeably longer but not by much. The first time it happened, (to one Tracy Davis) Harry briefly wondered what would happen to her if she wasn't sorted before the hat announced Slytherin! to the hall at large. As she sat the hat back on the stool, she looked impassive about her sorting at best. Most of the other children looked somewhere between excited and smug, Tracy did not look pleased, if anything he thought she looked nervous, but definitely didn't know her well enough to say for sure.

The next two interesting sortings were right after the other. Hermione Granger took a little over a minute and a half but was eventually sorted into Gryffindor with a thoughtful look on her face. Next was Daphne Greengrass, the blonde who was measured for her robes after Draco. She managed to stall the hat for almost two minutes before the hat shouted Slytherin out to the hall of students.

Daphne made him curious and nervous at the same time. She was very composed and moved with a flowing grace. She had caught his eye before turning to her new house table and Harry gave her the briefest of smiles. Despite having taken the longest to sort so far, she gave no indication on whether or not she was pleased with the results, much like the Tracy girl from earlier. He did notice that she never looked at anyone at the Slytherin table and only looked at Tracy or right in front of her.

Neville was also one of the sortings that took a little longer, and he seemed so relieved with his Gryffindor sorting, that he ran halfway to the table before he had to turn back and return the hat. Malfoy stuck out with how little time the hat took to sort him into Slytherin. He hadn't even fully put the hat on before he was strutting over to the table. There were quite a few "standard" timed sortings and before he realized it, it was his name being called to the front.

Immediately the hall was filled with whispers. Harry had to try very hard not to roll his eyes, he was famous for something his mother had died to do. He was a year old when it happened, there was nothing he could have done, let alone remembered what happened. He really did not understand why he was the subject of so much awe. One day he would earn that praise, he owed it to his parents at least.

As the sorting hat slid over his eyes, he began to wonder how the hat worked.

'I assure you, Mr. Potter, I still work, and no, before you ask, you are not broken.' A warm voice sounded in his mind.

Harry almost jumped out of the stool he was sitting on. 'Are you the Sorting Hat?'

'Why yes I am.' The warm voice chuckled. 'An excellent place to start though, with plenty of curiosity, a certain love and respect for knowledge, you could do well in Ravenclaw.'

The Hat seemed to ponder for a moment. 'We'll have to remember that, I do think it might get a touch lonely for you though, plenty of that already. Which leads nicely into Hufflepuff.'

Harry could swear the hat was actually moving things around in his mind, it was a very unusual sensation. 'Picked up on that have you? Oh yes, I can see you are very familiar with how your own magic feels, and even more impressive for knowing the difference in mine. Plenty of hard work there, to be able to do that. And I can already see the foundations of some fierce loyalty. The eldest Weasley boy, and even Hagrid. Helga would love to have you, and I'm sure you would eventually love to be in Hufflepuff.'

'Now, don't get me wrong, you'd do well wherever you go, in any of the Houses. The next two, are a little closer fit for you. Slytherin could give you a step up on the way to greatness; I can see that you have a powerful mind and a willingness to plan and wait for your advantage. You could learn a lot there, Mr. Potter.'

Harry had to admit that getting a head start sounded very nice and he appreciated opportunities to learn and become better.

'Yes, quite intoxicating. Isn't it? The allure of power. The real question is why one wants to wield it? For themselves? For the sake of others? An excellent thing to know in general and especially important to know in that house.' The Hat paused a moment before continuing.

'Now the noble house of Gryffindor, another good fit as well. Plenty of bravery, definitely not afraid of the unknown and almost a preference to make it up as you go. And you certainly have a soft spot for those who cannot defend themselves. You definitely have a lot to offer Gryffindor.'

Harry had to admit all four Houses sounded great and he could learn a lot from any of them. The Sorting Hat did have a point that Slytherin and Gryffindor sounded like better fits for him and he decided to trust the Hat's judgment.

'Oh?' The Hat chuckled in his mind. 'I must say, that is certainly telling. If you're sure you want me to choose… better be… GRYFFINDOR!' The Hat yelled the last word out loud to the hall.

The red and gold table erupted into cheers and chants about Harry Potter joining Gryffindor. Harry set the Hat back on the stool and made his way over the other first years at his new table. Most of the sorting had already taken place and the only other sorting of note was that, like Malfoy, Ron had immediately gotten sorted into Gryffindor.

Headmaster Dumbledore greeted the students and quickly started the feast, the food was delicious and there were greater quantities than Harry had ever seen. Harry had eaten almost to explosion, and his eyes went wide when the desserts took their place. It all looked so good, he couldn't let it go to waste so he ended up taking a slice of treacle tart and by the time Dumbledore stood to give his speech after the feast he was almost falling asleep. His speech was pretty standard, welcome students new and old, schedules will be handed out tomorrow, prefects will show the new students to their dorms, stay on the grounds and out of the dark and scary forest, don't cause a ruckus in the halls, and don't go into a perfectly normal hallway on the third floor unless you'd like to meet an untimely and likely painful death.

Harry was not nearly as tired as he was, and was looking around to see if maybe the Headmaster was joking but all he saw were shocked faces like him and solemn acceptance from the older students and faculty. Harry made a mental note to avoid the third floor entirely if he could. Shortly after that announcement they were dismissed and followed the prefects up to their dormitories. Gryffindor tower was all the way up on the seventh floor, which felt miles away to Harry.

Finally, the group of first years reached the top of the seventh flight of stairs and turned the corner to come across a long hallway with a very large portrait of a large woman in a pink dress. The students had enough time to gather before the portrait turned to look at the group and asked, "Password?"

Percy Weasley straightened up importantly and answered, "Caput Draconis."

The lady in pink nodded before swinging on a hinge and exposing a doorway leading into the Gryffindor Common Room. It was a cozy circular room with rich dark woods and maroon colored chairs and rugs with splashes of gold accented throughout. A large fireplace was smoldering on a wall to one side with a large window on the opposite side. Directly across the room from the entrance were stairs going up in opposite directions.

"Welcome to the Gryffindor Common Room. We just passed through the Fat Lady, and she is our 'gatekeeper' if you will." Percy gestured to a bulletin board next to the entrance way, "This is the board where new passwords will be posted for about a week before they will be changed, as well as any other club or group sign up sheets or information you may need."

Percy gestured to the stairs, "Directly across the way, we have the staircases to the dormitories. Left is for the girls, right for the boys. First floor up on both sides is for first years, next up is second years, and so on all the way up to the top for seventh year students."

"Seats around the fireplace are first come, first serve, please do not fight over seats and don't let the older students bully you out of them." Percy gave the group a serious look. "Breakfast is served in the morning starting two hours before classes, tomorrow we will meet here in the Common room at that time, and we will walk you back down to the Great Hall for breakfast, on the way, we will show you the library on the fourth floor and the fastest way to breakfast from there."

Percy studied the first years for another moment before continuing, "Your trunks and other possessions left on the train have already been brought up and placed in front of your bed. I suggest getting some sleep. Good night." Percy nodded at them before turning on his heel and disappearing up the stairs.

Harry was really tired, and although he didn't appreciate being told to go to bed, he had a hard time feeling rebellious with such a full stomach. Shaking his head, he made his way up the stairs entering the door on the first landing labeled 'First Years.' When he entered, Harry found his trunk towards the middle of the semicircle of four poster beds. Harry didn't pay much attention to the others but did notice that Neville and Ron were on either side of him.

Opening his trunk and finding some pajamas, Harry made his way into the bathroom to change. With heavy eyelids Harry climbed into bed and shut his curtains before starting his nightly meditation. He had a smile on his face as he laid down to sleep, he did not have to see the Dursleys for at least 9 months, he did not have to worry about where his next meal would be coming from, and best of all, he was going to be learning magic soon. Actual magic! He may not know exactly what the future held, but he was certain it was infinitely better than the life he had just left.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I would like to point out a few things with the Weasley twins.

They didn't know about Bill showing Harry around because Bill was under Gringotts business and couldn't talk about it.

They also seem a little mean here? Maybe I'm not sure but I do want to point out they care about Ron, wanted to get him settled, and make sure he stayed there and thought about what he said. Getting kicked out of the compartment meant hanging out with them with a giant spider.

On a personal note:

I have not, nor do I plan on abandoning this story. I have had a lot of unexpected changes lately and therefore haven't had the time to commit to writing or have been too stressed out and chased the muse off.

Thank you so much for the support! I really had not expected more than a read or two until I got quite a bit farther.